Fertile Hybrids

[aphily8ed]

Does anyone know of or seen a Canary X Gray Singer cross? Is there any chance that the resulting young could be fertile, or are they 100% mules?

[jonvill]

They are not fertile, they are mules.

[Dave]

The Canary is Serinus canaria.

Some sources list the Green Singing Finch (also know as Yellow-Fronted Canary) as Serinus mozambicus. Others say Crithagra mozambica.

Some sources list the Grey Singing Finch (also known as White-rumped Seedeater) as Serinus leucopygius, and some as Crithagra leucopygia.

So we have at least two common names and two binomial names for each of these birds.

I'm not even sure that I have all of the above information right, but I did go to reputable bird sites to collect it.

Does anyone know definitively the genus and species for the Grey Singing Finch and Green Singing Finch? Are we all talking about the same birds?

[Sheather]

Hi Dave.

They are the same birds. Green and gray singers (also known by the other common names you said), along with many other species formally held in Serinus, have recently been reclassified into their own genus, Crithagra, on the basis of genetic evaluation that was formerly not possible. We will likely see a lot of reclassification of birds now that scientists have the ability to compare species on a cellular level to determine their true relation - previously, we could only go by morphology and behavior, but in many cases these can be deceiving as unrelated species can convergently evolve similar traits and many perching birds in particular can look very similar while differing substantially in their DNA. This would be the case for the singing finches - they are no longer considered to be of the same genus as the atlantic canary.

I have not seen a gray singer cross, but given the canary's very wide ability to hybridize to other fringillid finches of many genera (including as varied as goldfinches, house finches, green singers and bullfinches) suggests it's almost certainly possible. The offspring are most likely predominately sterile with some possibility of fertile males, as is the case for other mules.

[Dave]

Sheather, thanks!